Special Election to Fill Vacant Council Seat in January Could Confuse Voters

SAN ANGELO – The San Angelo City Council could call a special election Tuesday to fill the vacant single-member district 5 seat during their regular meeting.  

The special election could cause some confusion among voters because the March 2022 Primary election is currently underway and candidates for county offices are campaigning now.  Several candidates are in the process of distributing campaign signs across San Angelo and Tom Green County. 

City Councilman Lane Carter announced his candidacy for Tom Green County Judge in the March 2022 Republican Primary and state law required that he automatically resign from his council seat.

This election to fill a vacancy must be "called" within 120 days per Article 11, Section 11 of the Texas Constitution when a home rule city has terms exceeding two years, but not exceeding four years and the term remaining is over twelve months - in this provision "called" means "conducted" within 120 days. Due to a 30-day blackout period on either side of the March 1, 2022 primary, the latest election date allowed is January 29, 2022.

The special election will be held January 29, 2022 with early voting running from Jan. 12 – 25 at the Keyes Building downtown.  

The election January 29, 2022 will be administered by Tom Green County Election Office.

The filing period for a place on the ballot for interested candidates that meet the qualifications to run for a Single Member District 5 place on the ballot is Tuesday, December 7, 2021 through Monday, December 20, 2021.

This is the same timeframe as write-in candidates. All candidates must reside in the current SMD 5 boundaries as of December 1, 2021.